Saint John of Las Vegas Casino Movie Review
by Bodog Casino | Feb 26 2010
It seems like good Vegas movies never come two years in a row. Before "The Hangover" came out and gave wives and girlfriends a glimpse of every bachelor party we had "What Happens in Vegas," which sucked. Actors Ashton Kutcher and Cameron Diaz seemed to be having a contest as to which actor could be more annoying on screen.
Before that you had "Ocean's 13," which was good. It recaptured what made "Ocean's 11" so great and washed out the bad taste that was "Ocean's 12." And years before that you had "The Cooler," a movie that underperformed but was hailed by critics.
Unfortunately, we still haven't we seen two great Vegas movies in the same year or in back-to-back years.
So does the back-to-back Vegas movie drought end with "Saint John of Las Vegas"? No. According to critics this movie is so bad that it may make you detour your casino trip to Atlantic City.
So what's the flick about? Saint John of Las Vegas tells the tale of a compulsive gambler (played by piano-key teeth Steve Buscemi) who heads from Vegas to Albuquerque to work for an auto insurance company. Unfortunately, his temptations crop up again when he's sent just outside Sin City to investigate a potentially shiesty car accident. But the longer he investigates the accident the more he realizes that he needs to face his gaming addiction rather than run from it.
With actors like Buscemi and Sarah Silverman involved the implication that the movie is supposed to be funny. And supposedly they end up in plenty of funny situations during the film. But according to Stephen Holden of The New York Times the movie is "simply not funny: not for a minute". Ouch.
How funny can a film about a guy dealing with a problem be anyway? And the last time we thought Silverman was funny was when she was dissing Paris Hilton at the MTV Movie Awards. Since then, she's only tickled us when ex Jimmy Kimmel is in her vicinity.
Peter Travers of Rolling Stone magazine says Buscemi and Silverman do an admirable job, but the script and directing of Hue Rhodes drags the characters they portray through the Vegas desert.
So, what's our suggestion? Just go watch "The Hangover" again and try to memorize everything those guys did in their end-credit photos so you can try to duplicate it on your next trip to Sin City.
